To The Extreme
by amanda5500
Summary: When depression hits Alex, she goes to the extreme.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

Alex walked through the front door as quietly as she could, hoping Claire wouldn't see her and ask her about the tears that were streaming down her cheeks. As she ran down the hallway to the downstairs bathroom, she made sure not to trip on the shoes that Haley and Luke had carelessly thrown everywhere.

Once she was in the safety of the bathroom, she closed and locked the door as quietly as possible. Alex looked at herself in the mirror, examining herself and all of the flaws that Hillary and the rest of her clique had pointed out that day; her round face, her boring and flat hair, and her uneven ears.

After a few minutes, she reached under the sink and fished around before finding her prized possession- a pocket knife. As she rolled up her sleeves, she couldn't help but cringe at the scars and fresh scabs that covered her arm.

She ran her finger over one that she had made just the day before, when Hillary had tormented her for her long, skinny fingers. Alex placed the blade of the knife on her wrist and took a deep breath before applying pressure and moving it the width of her arm.

Alex winced at the pain, but when the blood began steadily flowing out of the wound, she began to feel relief. After she repeated the process a few more times, she held her arm over the sink and watched the blood poor out and go down the drain. Just when she felt that if she watched the blood drip any longer she would become sick, Alex whipped the knife and put it back in the cabinet under the sink.

"Alex? Are you home yet?" Claire yelled.

"Yup, Mom," replied Alex, "I just had to go to the bathroom."

"Alright sweetie. You take your time and I'll make you a snack."

"Thanks, mom."

Now that Claire knew she was home, Alex knew that she had very limited time before she would begin to wonder why she was in the bathroom so long. Her blood had now ran off of her arm and started to make a puddle on the tile floor.

Quickly, she began to gather toilet paper to wipe up the mess on the floor and her arm.

"Alex?" she heard Claire say after a few minutes. "Are you feeling alright? You've been in there for a while."

She answered, "Yup, I just think I ate some bad tuna fish at lunch, that's all. I'll be out in a minute."

"Ok, but I can take you to the doctor if you need me to."

"No, I don't think that that is really necessary." Alex looked down at her arm and sighed; one of her biggest fears was having the doctor find the scars and cuts and ask questions that Alex didn't want to answer.

"Well, your snack is on the counter. I'm going to go and finish folding the laundry."

"Ok."

When the blood was off of the floor and the bleeding had almost stopped, Alex buried the blood-stained toilet paper in the garbage can and went into the kitchen to get her snack.

She stood at the counter and took out her phone. While she was eating her cheese and crackers and apples, she typed in her log she kept of everything Hillary had teased her about and on what date the tormenting occurred. This was her "Things I Need To Fix" list.

Haley walked up the stairs from the basement and Alex looked up from her phone.

"Hey," Haley said.

"Hi," said Alex.

"Woah!" Haley looked at Alex's hand and the pool of blood that was beginning to form on the kitchen floor. "What's that from?"

Alex put her phone face down on the counter and looked down. She felt her stomach drop, afraid that Haley would find out her big secret and then tell her mom, getting her in big trouble. "Uh, it's um, well, you know," she stammered, "I guess that it is from the paper cut I got when I was taking my book out of my backpack."

"Nerd," Haley whispers as she walked upstairs. A few seconds later, Alex heard a door close, and she assumed that it was Haley's bedroom door. Alex sighed with relief.

She put her phone down on the counter as she finished the rest of her snack. As she put her plate in the sink, she heard her phone go off. Alex walked over to it and saw that it was from Hillary. Someone must had found out Alex's number and given it to Hillary because Alex would never give Hillary her number; that was just asking for trouble.

Alex opened it and read it.

"Hey, loser," it said, "I know your big secret. I don't care if blood comes out of your arm until you run out and die. In fact, you should just kill yourself now. No one would care anyway and no one would miss you. So go ahead and do it. I dare you."

There was nothing Alex would do but stare at the text message and try to understand it. There was only one thing she could do. She had to do what Hillary wanted.

"I'm sorry for being such a disappointment I'm sorry for being such a waste of time and money. I was not worth it. I'm sorry I let it go on for this long. I really should have done this sooner, so I'm sorry for that too," Alex wrote. "Goodbye."

Alex put the note under her parents' pillow so they would only find it when they went to bed, and when it would be too late; she would already be gone.

Once she got back into her room and closed the door, she picked up the pain killers that she planned to overdose on.

To her surprise, there was still over half of a bottle left, just enough to accomplish her mission.

She poured out all of the pills into her hand and put them in her mouth. As quickly as she could, Alex drank water and swallowed every last pill.

Then, she lay down on her bed, hoping to fall asleep and never wake up.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

"Alex, Alex, honey. Wake up!" Claire yelled. "Time for dinner!"

No matter how many times Claire called her name, Alex wouldn't move and wouldn't say anything.

"Phil! Get up here!" shouted Claire.

A few seconds later, Phil ran into Alex's room. He frantically asked, "What's wrong?"

"Call 911," Claire ordered, "Now!"

Just as quick as he came in, Phil ran out of the room and dialed the phone.

"911, what's your emergency?" the 911 operator asked.

By now, Phil was hysterical; he could not stop crying. He did his best to respond. "My daughter, she, she, she… Help!"

"Sir, I going to need you to take a deep breath and try to explain to me what is going on while the ambulance is on the way. What happened?"

"I don't know what was going on, I'm a terrible parent!" At this point, the crying was uncontrollable. He couldn't get any words out to explain to the operator what happened. Phil stood with the phone to his ear, listening to the calming words the woman was telling him.

After a few minutes, he heard sirens outside. Phil thanked the operator and hung up the phone.

He ran back into Alex's room and saw Claire rocking back and forth, mumbling, "It can't be true, it can't be happening, not to me, not to her, not now."

"Honey," began Phil, "the paramedics are here. We're going to need to move out of the way so they can come upstairs and get Alex."

Claire looked up and locked eyes with Phil. "No," she said.

"No?"

"Don't let them in my house."

"But they have to help her. She's going to be in good hands. They know what they are doing, trust me."

"I'm going to take her to the hospital myself."

"But you asked me to call 911."

"I've changed my mind! Tell them to leave! Help me carry her down to the car!"

The front door opened and two paramedics carrying a stretcher ran up the stairs. As soon as they got into the room, Phil told Claire to get out of their way so they could help Alex. She refused, even when a paramedic, who introduced himself as Jeff, told her that she could be there when they put her on the stretcher and that she could ride in the ambulance. Claire just kept telling them that she couldn't leave her baby.

Another paramedic, who Jeff said was named Paul, had to pick up Claire and hold her back while Jeff took care of Alex.

After a few minutes, she was all taken care off a taken down to the ambulance, with Claire right behind her.

Claire matter-of-factly said, "I'm going with her. You said I could go with her, so I'm going."

"That's fine," responded Jeff. "You can even stay in the back with Paul and your daughter while…"

"Alex. Her name is Alex," interrupted Claire.

"Yes, of course. You can stay in the back with Paul and _Alex_ while I drive. We want to make this as easy as possible for you."

Claire nodded and climbed into the back of the ambulance, followed by Alex whose stretcher was being lifted up by Paul.

Phil said that he would meet them at the hospital.

As Jeff began to drive away, Paul closed the back doors of the vehicle. Claire leaned against the wall and closed her eyes, trying to prepare herself for what would be happening when they arrived at the hospital.

"Ma'am? Ma'am?" a voice asked.

Claire opened her eyes and saw Paul in front of her.

Embarrassed, Claire quickly said, "Did I fall asleep? Standing up?"

Paul chuckled. "Yes, but don't worry. What you're going through is very stressful and tiring. It's and it's not the first time that I've seen someone fall asleep in the back of the ambulance, and it definitely will not be my last."

Claire looked around, confused. "Where's Alex?"

"She's in surgery right now."

"Surgery?"

"Yes, surgery. You see, she overdosed on pain killers. We have to get the toxins on of her body before they take over and shut down her organs."

"I'm going in. I have to talk to Phil and I have to be there when she gets out of surgery. I just have to."

Paul and Claire walked into the hospital and began to talk. They talked about Haley and Luke, just trying to talk about anything but the event that just happened. It turns out Paul has kids himself, although they are all grown. His oldest daughter even went through the same thing that Alex is going through right now, and she lived. Now, she is happier than ever, according to Paul. She is married and has kids of her own.

Before they knew it, they were in the waiting room where Phil was sitting.

When they walked in the room, he walked over to them and hugged Claire.

"Thanks, Paul. Have a nice day," said Phil.

"Anytime. I give Alex my best," Paul replied as he waved and walked out the room.

Phil and Claire sat down together and held hands. Claire rested her head on her husband's shoulder and fell asleep once again.

"Plus, we don't know if she will ever be alright again," was the first thing that Claire heard when she woke up. A man in a lab coat that read, "Dr. Michaels, MD" was sitting in the chair across from them.

"Who might not ever be alright again?" asked Claire.

Phil replied, "Oh, honey! You're up."

"Who might not ever be alright again?" she repeated.

Dr. Michaels stood up and began to pace around the waiting room. "You see, Mrs. Dunphy, Alex, well, she isn't exactly, um, she isn't, um…"

"She isn't what?" shouted Claire. "Just say it for God's sake!"

"She isn't responding well to the surgery or to the medication that we put her on. The pain killers were in her system for too long. They had already attacked her organs by the time we had begun the surgery. I'm afraid that by the looks of it, her chances of survival are very slim."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

"Are you telling me that she might not live?" asked Claire. "You can't be serious!"

Dr. Michaels replied, "I'm saying that she will definitely not live, but there is always that chance and I need to make sure that you are aware of that." He ran his hand through his graying hair, obviously regretting telling Claire about Alex right away and not waiting until she was in better shape to take the news.

"This is all my fault! Alex is going to die because of me!"

"Ma'am, this is not your fault. Everything is going to be alright. We will be with you every step of the way."

"Let me talk to her."

"I don't know if she is awake from the surgery yet." Dr. Michaels looked at his watch. "There is something that I would like to show you before she wakes up. Come with me."

The three of them walked out of the waiting room and down the hallway where all of the hospital rooms were. They walked through a door marked "Recovery" and into a room near the end of the hallway.

In the room, Alex was laying on a bed with many tubes in various places on her body.

Dr. Michaels motioned for them to follow him to the side of the bed. He rolled up one sleeve and Phil and Claire gasped. There were multiple scabs and scars all up her arm. The red marks were in a perfectly straight line; there was nothing else that could have caused them.

"By any chance, did Alex do this to herself?" Dr. Michaels asked.

"I had no idea she was doing this!" exclaimed Claire. "How could I not have noticed this?"

"This is not the only place she did this, so it isn't abnormal for you to not notice anything. People who do this to themselves are generally very good at hiding it."

Phil hugged Claire and they both began to cry. Dr. Michaels excused himself and allowed them to stay in the room until their daughter woke up.

A few hours later, Alex's eyes opened. Phil and Claire put their phones away and walked over to the hospital bed.

"What's happening? Where am I?" Alex quizzically asked.

Phil responded, "You're in the hospital. We found you on your bed practically dead."

"Am I in trouble?"

Claire laughed. "No, sweetie. You're not in trouble."

"Okay, good." Alex looked over and her arm and saw that her sleeve was rolled up. "So you know?"

"Yes, we do. Why didn't you tell us?"

"Oh, I don't know, Mom. Maybe because the whole point is for someone to not know so you don't ever have to stop doing it. It was my only way to deal with all the crap that I was dealing with."

"Let's not worry about this now. Just relax and we'll talk about it after."

Alex put on the TV and turned to the news cast.

Julia Smith, the evening news caster said, "In other news, a teenage girl attempts suicide by overdosing on pain killers. She was taken to the hospital and given emergency surgery. More updates will be given on this story as they develop. Julia Smith, channel 3 news."

Everyone in the room looked at each other. Alex quickly looked away and turned off the TV.

As soon as it was off, a woman, who looked to be about Claire's age, walked into the room. She introduced herself and Pamela. Pamela put the clipboard she was hugging to her chest on the bedside table. The bright pink sweater she was wearing was revealed.

"Hi, Alex," she greeted. "I'm going to be helping you get through everything so you can go home as soon as possible, alright?"

"No," started Alex, "I don't want your help."

"Is now not a good time?"

"Not really. Please leave."

"Alrighty, I'll come back in a little bit to check if you are ready to begin our first session."

"No. Don't come back at all. I don't want your help. I don't want to change what I'm doing. Can't everyone just realize that I disserve everything that people are doing to me and everything that I am doing to myself?"

"Oh, no. You see, that's why I'm here. You need to realize that you did nothing wrong and you shouldn't be getting treated this way."

"I said, get out of my room!"

Pamela stepped out of the room and motioned for somebody to come into the room. A few seconds later, two other women stepped next to Alex's bed.

One of them said, "Hi, Alex! My name is Debby and this is Jill." Debby motioned to the woman standing next to her. "We really do think that you need some therapy, and maybe even some anger management. We are going to need to start right now, and I'm afraid we can't leave until you give us some answers."

A smirk spread across Alex's face. "Oh, you can't leave?" she asked. "Then I will." She ripped the IVs out of her hands and arms and began to get out of her bed.

"Sweetie, we just need to talk to you. I wouldn't recommend getting up. Your body is too weak. It hasn't had enough time to recover from what you did to it."

Alex mumbled, "Don't tell me what to do." She got up and began walking as quickly as she could down the hallway. She ignored the trail of blood that was being left behind her from when she ripped out the IVs.

As she walked down the hallway, she got strange looks and whispers from nurses and other residents. Alex didn't care; all she cared about was getting away from the therapists. They didn't understand that she was fine the way she was and didn't want any help.

Finally, she found a door at the end of a hallway. Alex sprinted for it, not daring to look back and finding out how close behind her parents or the therapists were.

When she opened the door, three flights of stairs faced her. Alex took a deep breath and raced down the stairs as fast as her weak legs would carry her. Each step she took was a challenge and made the next one even harder.

"_I have to make it down these stairs_," thought Alex. "_I have to get out of here_!"

Alex heard voices yelling her name and telling her to get back upstairs. Claire shouted to her that she was only hurting herself even more than she already was.

Just when the bottom of the stairs was in sight, the room began to spin. As she went down the steps, she would stumble. Her balance was off and she started to feel light headed.

Before she knew it, Alex fell to the ground, unconscious. Her limp body spread out over multiple stairs, left for someone who was chasing her to find.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Claire and Phil walked in through the front door. Haley was sitting at the breakfast nook texting and eating strawberries. She looked up when she heard the door close.

"Hey, how's Alex?" she asked.

Phil looked at Claire. She shook her head, so Phil said, "She's going, um, great. She's better already."

"How stupid do you think I am? I know she can't be 'doing great'. She tried to kill herself last night, for God's sake! Now tell me what's really going on."

For a few moments, everyone just looked at each other. Finally, Claire said, "She tried to run away. She ripped the IVs out and ran down the stairs. They think it might be best if we don't visit her for a while. It might be easier for all of us. She's under observation, anyway, so she'll have people checking in on her a few times a day."

"What are you going to tell Luke?"

"I haven't thought about that yet. But he'll probably believe what we told you at first."

Haley shrugged her shoulders. "Probably."

The phone began ringing and Claire ran to get it. She picked it up and said, "Hello?" After a few seconds, she added, "Oh, hi, Dad." Claire looked at Phil and Haley with pain filled eyes. "No, Dad. I don't think… No, please don't... That probably isn't the best idea to… Please don't…" Claire pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at it, angry. "He's going to visit Alex in the hospital," she said.

"Honey," began Phil. "I don't think that that is the best idea."

"It isn't, but there is nothing that I can do. He'll just have to figure that out on his own. I'm going to sit by the phone. I have a feeling I'm going to be getting a call from the hospital soon."

Jay walked into the grey colored waiting room. The receptionist sitting at the desk looked up from her computer monitor and stopped pecking at the keyboard.

She asked, "Can I help you?"

"I'm here to see Alex Dunphy," he replied.

The receptionist ran her finger down a sheet of paper taped to the wall. She then told Jay, "She's not supposed to be getting visitors right now. I apologize, but I can call you when she is, if you would like."

Jay nodded and took out his wallet. "Are you sure she's not accepting visitors?" he asked as he slid a twenty dollar bill onto the side of the counter nearest to the receptionist.

She looked at it and smirked. "Alright, sir. Right this way." Jay followed her down the hall and into Alex's room.

The receptionist said, "Alex, you have a visitor."

Alex opened her eyes. "Hi, Grandpa," she said.

"Hi, Alex. How are you feeling?"

"Better. Do you have any idea when I can leave here?"

"How about now?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm going to take you out for some lunch. You can only eat the slop the hospital calls food for so long. Get out of bed and let's get going." Jay picked up the spoon that was resting on the tray and lifted up what the hospital claimed to be mashed sweet potatoes. He watched in disgust as it heavily fell back into the pile of other potatoes.

"I don't think I really should be leaving. I mean, I have to get more medicine in a few hours, and what if someone comes into check on me, and I'm not here?"

"Stop worrying! None of that will happen. Now, let's go!"

Alex sighed and got out of bed and followed Jay out of her room. They snuck down the hallway; they both knew that they really shouldn't be leaving.

"Hey!" a voice shouted. "Where do you think you're going?"

Jay and Alex fearfully turned around, ready to explain what they were doing. Much to their surprise, they found that the nurse wasn't yelling at them, but at an elderly man who was walking and pushing his IV down the hallway.

They kept walking, rode the elevator to the first floor, and walked out the door. Jay's yellow sports car was easily spotted in the parking lot, which was otherwise filled with dull colored cars. Jay pushed the button on his key that unlocked the car. The car beeped, causing everyone in the parking lot to look at them. Alex angrily looked at her grandfather, hoping that the attention that was drawn to them would soon end and everyone would go back to what they were doing. Luckily, it did.

Alex opened the car door and slid onto the heated leather seat. As soon as she slammed the door shut, she began to second guess their decision.

"I don't really think that we should be doing this," she blurted out.

Jay replied, "Would you stop worrying so much? It's going to be fine. We're just going to go to lunch and then we'll be back before they even realize you were gone."

She rested her head on the headrest and closed her eyes, trying to calm her nerves.

Claire and Phil sat on the couch looking at Luke who was sitting in a chair across from them.

"What do you mean she tried to kill herself? Haley told me she had to be rushed to the hospital to get her appendix taken out," said Luke.

"That was just something to tell you so you wouldn't worry this morning when you woke up and Alex wasn't here," explained Phil.

A worried look spread across Luke's face.

"Oh, no, sweetie," began Claire, "don't worry. She's, um, doing great." She looked at Phil and he nodded. "She's making more progress than they thought."

Suddenly, the phone rang. Claire got up off of the couch and picked it up from the charging dock.

"Hello?" Claire asked. There was a pause while the person on the other end of the conversation responded. "Alright, I'll be right there. Thanks, bye." She hung up the phone.

"What was that, honey?" Phil questioned.

"That was the hospital. They can't find Alex."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Claire and Phil walked into the all-too-familiar plain waiting room of the wing of the hospital that Alex was in. They had been in there so many times that they and the receptionist knew each other on a first name basis.

"Hey, Kendra," greeted Phil.

Kendra looked up from her paperwork and smiled. "Hi, guys. Seeing Alex again?"

"I wish," Claire mumbled.

A look of confusion spread across Kendra's face. "Is another family member in here?"

"No, everyone else is fine. They just… I don't know if I should tell you this."

Phil put his arm around Claire's shoulder and said, "Go ahead, honey. It won't be doing any harm, and she might even be able to help us."

"Okay. So, no one can find Alex. They haven't seen her since ten o'clock this morning when they gave her her medication. Did you see her leave? You know, by herself or with someone else?"

Kendra tapped the pen she was holding against her chin. "Well," she began, "I did see her this morning around eleven thirty. She was with a, um, an older man with, um, grey hair, but he didn't have a lot of it. When he first came to the desk, Katie, the other receptionist, told him that he couldn't see Alex because she wasn't accepting visitors. Then he gave her a twenty dollar bill and…"

At the same time Claire said, "My dad," Phil said, "Your dad."

"I'm glad I could help. Do you need me to call him?" asked Kendra.

Claire shook and her head and answered, "No, I got it, and thanks for everything," as she and Phil ran out the door while she dialed her phone, ready to give her dad a piece of her mind.

Jay and Alex were almost at the restaurant when Jay's phone began to ring. He picked up the phone and the screen read, "Claire."

"It's your mother," he started, "do me a favor and answer it." Jay held out the phone, expected Alex to take it from him. When she didn't, he looked at her. "What?"

Alex replied, "She can't know where I am. If she finds out I agreed to this, I'll be in so much trouble. And I _can't_ be in trouble! I _never_ get in trouble. That is…"

"Alright! I'll answer it!" Jay hit the "accept" button and put it up to his ear. Before he said anything, he changed his mind and put it on speaker.

He said, "Hello?"

"Dad?" she asked. "Are you with Alex?"

Jay looked at Alex and she shook her head, but Jay sighed and told Claire the truth. "Yes, but before you get mad at me, we were just going to get some lunch and I was going to bring her right back."

"It doesn't matter if you were going to bring her right back; you weren't supposed to take her out at all!"

"Alright, alright. After we get some food, she'll be right back, I promise. Most people won't even realize she was ever gone."

"Dad, everyone realizes she was gone! They made an announcement to the entire hospital and lots of people are looking for her. Get her back here now."

Jay's tires screeched as he made a U-turn and headed back to the hospital. "We're on our way." He hung up on Claire without any warning.

The ride back to the hospital was silent and the air was filled with tension. When they arrived, Jay stopped the car, unlocked the doors, looked at Alex, and said, "Out."

Alex confusedly stared back at him and asked, "What?"

"Out," Jay repeated. "Now."

Giving him strange looks, Alex left the car and ran into the hospital and up to her room. Sitting on the edge of her bed were her nervous looking parents. The both hopped up from the bed as soon as they saw her. Claire gave her a long hug while saying, "Oh, sweetie! I'm so glad you're alright! We were worried sick about you."

"I'm fine, Mom, and trust me, I didn't even want it to happen this time. Grandpa talked me into it. I don't know what came over me. I should have known better, I really should have, and I'm sorry." Alex began to cry and Claire rubbed her back, trying to comfort her.

"It's alright, honey. I know how Grandpa can be. He always finds a way to get what he wants."

Phil walked over to Alex. "Your mother and I are not upset with you. Everything is going to be alright."

Claire stopped hugging her daughter and guided her over to the bed. She suggested Alex take a nap and she helped her into bed, making sure to pull the blanket over her entire body.

Phil and Claire blew a kiss to Alex as they walked into the hallway, turned the lights off, and shut the door.

A few hours later, Alex woke up. After a few moments of orienting herself, she picked up a book of poetry she had started a few days ago and asked her parents to bring into the hospital.

There were a few poems that Alex skimmed, but she stopped when she came to something that made her stop turning the page.

"You're more important than you think," Alex whispered to herself. The whole poem talked about how others may think something, but people that really matter to you may think the opposite. Not letting the negative comments get to you is the key to a happy life.

Alex read and re-read the poem many times, even tearing up. She had finally realized that she wanted to live, even if Hillary didn't want her to.

When someone knocked on her door, Alex whipped the tears off of her cheeks.

"Come in," she said.

Someone she recognized from the front desk opened the door and poked her head into the room.

"Alex?" she asked.

"Yes?"

"There's someone in the waiting room that wants to see you. She said her name was Hillary."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Heather?" Alex asked.

"You know, straight brown hair, very nicely dressed," replied Katie, the receptionist from the front desk.

"I know who she is, but I just, well, you know, I don't want to see her."

Slightly shocked at Alex's response, it took Katie a moment to process what was said. "Your mother told me that it was important that you two 'talked about your differences'." To Alex, the air quotes made it seem like Katie was mimicking her mother, which made her slightly angry. However, she ignored it, realizing now that she couldn't pick a fight; she had to try to convince Katie that she didn't need to talk to Heather.

In order to get what she wants, Alex tried to be as polite as possible. "That really won't be necessary, Katie, but thank you anyway. Please close my door on the way out."

Katie laughed. "It's not that easy. I've talked with your social worker and therapist, you know, the ones you refused to talk to, and they both agreed that you guys should talk. I'll go get Heather now."

Just as Alex asked, Katie closed the door after she left the room.

Trying her best to avoid having to see her greatest enemy, she decided to try to fall asleep. She put her head down on the pillow and closed her eyes, focusing on making her breathing pattern similar to that of someone who is sleeping.

A few moments later, the door opened and Alex tried to ignore the urge to open her eyes.

"I guess she's sleeping," Heather began, "I can come back another time if that would be better.

Katie snickered and responded, "She's not sleeping! I was just in here and she was wide awake. Just give me a second."

The pitter-patter of Katie's footsteps became louder as she approached the bed. She placed her hand on Alex's shoulder and shook it while powerfully saying, "Alex! Wake up! I know you can hear me."

Finally, Alex gave in and opened her eyes.

"Oh, hey, Heather, hey Katie," Alex casually said. "When did you get here?"

"Ha ha ha, you're so funny. Now, I'll just leave you two alone. Just pull the emergency cord if you need anything."

Katie left the room, and Heather and Alex awkwardly stared at each other. Heather looked around the plain room and finally took a seat in the chair next to Alex's bed.

Alex could see the expression on Heather's face changing so she said, "Look, I don't want to do this either, but my social worker and therapist seem to think that it's a good idea, so let's just get this over with."

Heather lifted one eyebrow, "Get what over with?"

"Your apology for all of this." Alex motioned to the scars on her arms and all of the IVs sticking into her hands and the inside of her elbow."

"You want _me _to apologize to _you_? How about you apologize to me? I got in major trouble for all of this when my mom took my phone and saw the text message."

"Maybe you never should have sent that message or done anything to me. I did nothing to you and I deserved nothing that you gave to me."

"I can't believe that you're blaming all of this on me!" Heather get up from the chair and put her hand on the door handle. "This is all of your fault for being such a worthless loser!"

Tears began to stream down Alex's cheeks, and she bit her bottom lip.

"You know," started Heather, "I'm not sorry that I did any of this to you; I'm sorry that you're still living to tell about it."

She left the room, making sure to loudly slam the door behind her and the walls shook. At this point, Alex couldn't help it anymore and tears were coming down her face like the water goes over the edge Niagara Falls.

Alex slammed her fist down on the table next to her bed. The worst part of all was that she agreed with Heather. If her mother hadn't found her, she would have just died right then and there, and everything would be a lot better for everyone, including her.

Suddenly, the shiny blade of a steak knife sitting on her dinner tray caught her eye. Usually, her food is cut up for her because they aren't supposed to give her anything that could be used to cut her skin. It had happened a couple times before that she and Nancy, the woman in the room next to her, had had their trays switched. Every time that had happened, Gail, Alex's nurse, had caught it and switched the trays immediately. No other nurse had ever done that, and Gail was off today.

Alex got up off of her bed and locked the door. She then grabbed the knife, and couldn't help but smile. All the time she had been in the hospital, she had missed being able to do whatever she wanted to her body, including cutting it.

The blade was cold and made Alex shiver when it touched her skin. She pushed down, but quickly decided that cutting on her arm wasn't the best idea; her arm was checked every night before she went to bed when she was given her medicine. So Alex rolled down her sleeve and pulled up the bottom of her gown, revealing her stomach.

This time, Alex ignored the cool metal on her skin and pushed the knife down as hard as her still weak body could. As she dragged the steak knife across her skin, she saw the trail of gushing blood from where the knife had just been. She repeated the process many more times, for a total of six of the most severe cuts Alex had ever given herself.

By then, her bed was covered in blood, the sheets a dark red.

Alex whimpered at the sight of what she had done. She placed the knife back on the tray of untouched food.

Taking deep, steady breaths, Alex feel into a deep sleep on a bed soaked by her own blood.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Haley walked down the hallway to Alex's room. Everyone was unaware of that incident that had just taken place in her room, so they didn't monitor the visitors she had.

She knocked on the door, but when there was no response, she knocked louder and said, "Alex? Are you in there?" There was still no one response, so Haley walked down the hallway to a nurse.

"Excuse me?" she asked. "I came to see my sister, but her door is locked and no one is responding. Could you unlocked the door?"

The nurse nodded and took out a key. As soon as she unlocked the door, she took her key out and walked away, leaving the door closed.

Haley opened the door and screamed at her sister laying on bloody sheets and wearing a bloody hospital gown. "Help! Someone come here! Someone help my sister!" screamed Haley. A doctor who was about to go into somebody else's room quickly ran to her side.

"Is everything alright, miss?" he asked.

"No! Please help my sister!"

He went into the room and was shocked at what he saw. He unclipped a walkie-talkie and began to talk into it. "I'm going to need backup. I'm in the room to the right of my intended room."

The doctor could see the tears silently streaming down Haley's cheeks as he grabbed paper towels, beginning to dab some of the blood off of Alex.

Within minutes, there were three more doctors all crowded around Alex. Haley got pushed out of the way and soon couldn't even see her sister. No matter what angle she titled her head to, Haley could only see white lab coats.

A doctor turned around and told Haley, "Is this your sister?"

"Yea," she replied. "Is everything okay?"

"I'm afraid not. She seems to have lost a lot of blood. Luckily, I read her file a few days back, so I know her blood type. Unluckily, the only reason I remembered it was because that type is so rare, a doctor only gets to see it one or two times a year. I highly doubt that we would have any in the blood bank downstairs."

"Then what are we going to do? You have to do something! You can't just sit around and do nothing!"

"Well, we could… Hey, wait a minute. Do you know what type of blood you have?"

"No, I don't. But couldn't you run some tests to find out?"

"Yes, we could. Follow me."

Haley followed the doctor down the hallway and into an elevator marked, "Staff Only." As it began to move, images of Alex laying in her bed, unconscious, kept flashing through her mind. Her thoughts we interrupted when the doors opened and they walked out into a lab with many people wearing lab coats and safety goggles working with machinery.

The doctor must have seen the look of confusion on her face because he began to explain what they were doing. "I'm taking you down to the lab that we rarely use. It will give us results in a few minutes, rather than a few hours from the one upstairs."

There was a chair in the far corner of the room that was next to a table covered in needles with thin tubes connected to them and different sized vials.

As soon as Haley sat down, the doctor put a needle in the inside of her elbow and laid out a row of five of the largest size vials and one of the smallest size, one of which was already connected to the tube.

"We are going to use the small vial to test our blood type," he explained. "The five larger vials will be used to give to Alex just in case your types are the same. We can't waste any time by coming back down here to get your blood if the types are the same."

Filling all of the vials took a lot longer than Haley thought it would, so she decided to start a conversation with the doctor. "I'm Haley, by the way."

"Hi, Haley. I'm Dr. Russell, but you can call me Luke."

"Ok, Luke. If this lab is rarely used, then why did you take me down here?"

Luke looked down at the floor. "Well, I don't usually tell people this, but my sister took her own life when she was sixteen. I became a doctor so I could prevent families from going through the same thing that mine had to. I know how awful it can be and I will do everything I can so people don't have to deal with everything that a suicide can bring."

"I'm really sorry, but I appreciate everything that you are doing. Not only for me, but for other families."

Soon, everything was filled and Luke rushed the smallest container to a machine that would test the blood type. A few seconds later, the results were back. Luke smiled from ear to ear when the realized that Haley and Alex's blood types were the same.

"Alright," he began. "We're back in business. We need to hurry upstairs if we want to make it in time."

While she was in the elevator, her phone went off. It was a text from Claire. It read, "We are up in Alex's room. Doctors are prepping room for another surgery. Come as quickly as you can."

Following her mother's orders, Haley and Luke ran down the hallway. Before the arrived at the room, they stopped and gave the blood to a nurse so it could be used in the surgery.

In Alex's room, Claire and Phil were sitting on the edge of their daughter's bed, both crying.

Luke said, "The operating room will be ready in twenty minutes, so I will leave you alone until then."

However, before he could leave, Alex's monitors began beeping and making all sorts of noises. Claire grabbed Alex and placed her head in her lap, hugging her.

A few seconds later, the lines on the monitors began to spike up and down, but they eventually started to even out.

Claire felt her beloved daughter take her last breath in her arms before her body went limp.


End file.
